A tragic love story tinged with magic, and the tale of a naughty child who is haunted by nursery toys coming to life are set to be performed by some on New Zealand’s finest young opera singers in Wellington next week.
In what promises to be an enchanting double bill, Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music is coupling one of England’s best-known operas, Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell with Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges.
Soprano Alicia Cadwgan is playing the tragic female lead in Dido and Aeneas, who is unable to accept her lover’s decision to go to war, even when magic brings him back to her. In L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Katherine McIndoe plays a tantruming child who is reprimanded by the unhappy objects she’s destroyed.
Tenor Declan Cudd is playing Aeneas, and Esther Leefe will be Dido’s sister.
The essential element to any opera is the music—the NZSM Orchestra will be performing live, playing in the baroque style for Dido and Aeneas, and taking on Ravel’s celebrated score for L’Enfant et les Sortilèges.
The show is directed by Auckland-based Victoria graduate Frances Moore, who has recently completed a qualification in Operatic Directing while on a Fulbright scholarship in New York. Weta Workshop stage and screen designer Alexandra Guillot has created the set and costumes.
Dido & Aeneas by Purcell and L’Enfant et les Sortilèges by Ravel Memorial Theatre, Victoria University of Wellington, 13–15 August at 7.30pm & 16 August at 2pm
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